Portable electronic devices such as wireless telephones, handheld computers, and handheld portable media players (e.g., MP3 players) are in common use, and are often designed to interface with another device such as a computer, the stereo system of a vehicle, an entertainment system, etc. so that data and/or power may be supplied from one device to the other. However, a commonly encountered problem is that the connectors conventionally used on one device do not match the connectors conventionally used on the other device; for example, a computer might have one or more USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectors, or a vehicle's stereo system might utilize an RCA connector, whereas an IPOD portable media player or IPHONE mobile telephone (from Apple Inc., Cupertino, Calif., USA) might use a proprietary 30-pin connector. Thus, users must often use interface cables which have terminal connectors designed to allow one device to communicate with the other, e.g., an interface cable having a USB or RCA connector on one end and a 30-pin connector at the other end. Because of the variety of different devices that can be interfaced, users must often obtain numerous different types of interface cables to allow a portable electronic device to interface with a variety of other devices.
Users also often want to have their portable electronic devices mounted in a fixed location/position when the devices are interfaced with other devices. Thus, it is common for users to utilize “docks,” that is, devices which bear sockets for receiving and holding portable electronic devices. These docks often have socket connectors within their sockets such that the portable electronic devices have their device connectors interface with the socket connectors when the portable electronic devices are inserted within the sockets. The socket connectors of the docks then connect to other devices (e.g., personal computers or stereo systems), thereby enabling a docked portable electronic device to communicate data and/or power from and/or to the connected device. Docks tend to suffer from the drawback that the dock sockets are typically designed to accommodate only a single specific make/model of portable electronic device, i.e., only a particular portable electronic device will properly fit within a given dock socket. Thus, a user must usually obtain different docks when interfacing different portable electronic devices to another device. For example, a user may need to obtain one dock to allow interfacing between his portable media player and the stereo system of his vehicle, and another dock to allow interfacing between another portable media player and the stereo system of the vehicle, even where the terminal connectors of the different portable media players are the same: the different configurations of the portable media players do not allow them to fit into a common dock socket. The problem is not easily remedied by simply having a variety of different docks on hand, since swapping one dock for the other may be difficult and inconvenient depending on the type and location of the dock's connection to the vehicle.
The foregoing problems might be referred to as the “interface problem” (the problem of providing an interface connector compatible with a particular portable electronic device) and the “socket problem” (the problem of providing a socket compatible with a particular portable electronic device, wherein the device can be properly fit). Docks often suffer from the interface problem as well as the socket problem, which has further limited their popularity. It would therefore be useful if users had available docking and interface systems which reduced the need for users to obtain multiple different docks and interfaces for use with different portable electronic devices, and which more generally offered greater versatility of use than prior docking and interface systems.